1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method of forming bond pads on semiconductor devices.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
In the fabrication of semiconductor devices, it is necessary to provide electrically conductive, solderable and wire bondable bond pads which adhere to the surfaces of such devices to provide electrical connection between components disposed in the semiconductor device itself and other components within that semiconductor device and/or to external devices. The prior art procedures generally utilized in fabrication of such bond pads have required a generally large number of processing steps, these processing steps including sputtering the seed metal onto the semiconductor device, coating and masking a resist over the seed metal, exposing the unmasked portion of the resist to an appropriate radiation, developing the resist to remove the resist either in the location of the pattern or in all locations but the pattern, depending upon the type of resist used, plating the exposed seed metal with copper, stripping the remaining resist and then etching away the exposed seed metal.
The use of plating processes presents several problems, among these problems being the difficulty of controlling the plating process and the environmental unfriendliness of the effluent resulting from the plating process. The strip and etch waste effluents produced by the current prior art processes also present an environmentally unfriendly disposal problem. It is therefore readily apparent that other bond pad fabrication procedures which eliminate the above described unfriendly aspects of the prior art procedures are highly desirable. In addition, a bond pad fabrication procedure which required fewer processing step and/or which utilized processing procedures which are compatible with semiconductor fabrication procedures would provide a desirable economic advantage.